Delivering world class injury research and training

About Claire

In September 2013 I lay in a hospital bed counting the tiles on the ceiling having just come round from my second spinal surgery in the space of 2 weeks. Three years previously I won the GBPF British Powerlifting Championships for my weight category, in only my second competition.

Sport has always been a huge part of my life and I’ve played at National and International levels across various sports. As I lay there in that bed the words that rattled round in my head were “Will I ever Get Back To Sport?” It was my biggest fear.

The first surgery went well and nobody was going to stop me from walking out the same day, but 6 days later I was in a car incident coming back from my grandad’s funeral. I had to return to hospital and ultimately have a second surgery.

This time it wasn’t so good. I was completely bed-bound prior to and afterwards. My partner was fantastic, bringing me decent food, coffee and laughs, my friend, a physio in the hospital brought me rehab aids for hand strengthening just so that I could do some form of activity and try to feel like I was speeding up my recovery.

At the time, I was in the middle of transitioning from a Senior Lecturer position in Sport Medicine at a Midlands University, to lead a research collaboration between 2 universities in Edinburgh and a major trauma & orthopaedic unit to develop new methods of rehabilitation following orthopaedic surgery. Funny eh?

I wondered, dreaded in fact whether I’d ever be active again. Walking was so painful, so was resting, but for different reasons. I found myself dreaming up ridiculous bargains and trades like: “If I could just get back to running, I’ll be happy never to lift again” It sounds so stupid, especially as an academic and scientist.

On leaving hospital, my challenge was to put into practice what I’d been teaching and researching over the previous 13 years. I knew what I had to do, what to avoid and how far I could push myself. It took many months of hard work, sweat, tears and restraint; not to mention the expertise of the fantastic clinical team of surgeons and physiotherapists. But I did it. I’m back doing pretty much everything that I want to do. I was so fortunate to have access to this expertise and to have built up my personal knowledge over many years knowledge of what to do afterwards.

It made me think. What happens to those people who don’t have access to the knowledge and experience? What happens to those people who slip through the net?

Get Back To Sport Was Born

It became my mission to provide the best education and training for fitness and healthcare professionals to help others in the same position that I was. I could help myself, however, I realised that if I couldn’t, I wouldn’t know where to turn for help to Get Back To Sport. I realised that I wouldn’t be a priority case for the stretched NHS physiotherapy services and I would be left searching.

Providing education and training for fitness professionals to up-skill to accommodate injury, to work in conjunction with physiotherapists, enables a whole new level of service that is quickly accessible by the individual. It provides a valuable learning opportunity for those passionate professionals.

The name Get Back To Sport reflects my personal journey and aspirations, however, the education and training covers all manner of conditions and goals. From high-performance athlete to the knee osteoarthritis suffer who wants to be able to walk to dog. Get Back To Sport is for all and I warmly welcome you.